BEWARE: The Intention Trap

By now the buzz and excitement of the New Year has died down. The "Best of 2016" posts have all but disappeared from your news feeds. You've probably stopped accidentally writing '2016' in your notes. And odds are you're sticking to your resolutions. It's a new year full of possibilities and potential...and this is going to be THE YEAR!

Fast forward to February. By now there is a 1 in 3 chance that you've abandoned your resolutions entirely. Come March that number is up to 40% and according to Forbes, by this time next year only 8% of people will have stuck to their resolutions for the entirety of 2017. Why so few?

Why so few indeed.

Maybe the question we really need to be asking isn't 'why do so few people stick to their resolutions throughout the year?' but rather 'what are they doing differently than the other 92% of resolution setters who fail?' Turns out, coincidentally, it's just a few things.

Consciously or not, the people who are successful over the long term understand that resolutions are actually intentions in disguise. And if you're like me, any time I hear or read the word 'intentions' I think of the famous saying that the road to failure is paved with good intentions. Why is that? Why are intentions cast in a negative light?

Intentions are not inherently bad things. And neither are hopes, wishes and dreams. It's fun to imagine what you would do if you won the lottery. And no doubt if everyone's dreams came true we would be living in a world full of wealthy, physically fit people basking in world peace...while riding ponies on their boats. (Thanks, Lyle Lovett for that one.)

Intentions, like hopes, wishes and dreams also have a nasty habit of not coming true just because someone has hoped, wished or dreamed them. If we apply the transitive theory here that means that if intentions don't come true and resolutions are the same thing as intentions, then resolutions won't just magically come true either.

Intentions are a trap. Resolutions are a trap. How to avoid the trap?

Set BIG Goals, REALLY BIG Goals - Amazing things happen when people set big goals. Big goals...as in REALLY BIG goals...will create more buzz and excitement and provide the best shot at holding interest over the long term.

Lot's of people reading this might be thinking 'I've always heard we should be setting S.M.A.R.T. goals?' (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-based.) Here's the good news...REALLY BIG goals and S.M.A.R.T. goals are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the most effective way to leverage S.M.A.R.T. goals is to use them as the bridge to get from current state all the way to the REALLY BIG goals.

Other amazing things start to happen when you set REALLY BIG goals and achieve a mindset of thinking big. Chris Widener has written a fantastic blog on this topic:

Here is Widener's point-by-point assessment of what happens when you think big:

• Big Possibilities Arrive
• Big People Help
• Big Things Happen
• Big Dollars Come
• Big Contributions Are Made To Others

Take Action - Most people take a few actions, a few people take the most actions. Those who take the most actions will always get closer to achieving their goals than those who do not. And for those who have mastered the art of setting really, really big goals this means achieving unbelievable levels of success.

If you spend your time focused on your intentions when you could be taking action you will be left to wonder why you're not making progress towards your goals. You will find yourself stuck in a rut which the enlightened know is really just a grave with the ends knocked out.

While some people judge themselves by their intentions the world is always judging them by their actions. To the world, people are the sum of what they do - not what they intend to do. There is only one guaranteed way to get on the right side of this fact: Take action!

Delay Gratification - Deliberate, measured actions lead to abundance while shortcuts lead to despair. That might sound a bit doom-and-gloom but if you look up the definition of despair it says: "to lose or be without hope." Hope...as in hopes and dreams...and intentions...which are synonymous with resolutions. See where this is going?

• Deliberate: Done consciously and intentionally
• Measured: Having a distinct, regular rhythm
• Action: The process by which something produces a change in another thing

No mention of an easy button, no get-rich-quick schemes, no skipping to the end.

You might be familiar with The Marshmallow Experiment which is a test first administered at Stanford in the 1960s. In this test children are seated at a table and presented with a single marshmallow. They are told that if they don't eat the marshmallow before the tester returns then they will be given a second marshmallow. If they do eat it, no more marshmallows.

What the researchers found is that over time the children who were able to delay gratification went on to achieve better grades, higher SAT scores and even lower BMI (body mass indexes.)

What are the marshmallows in your life? Facebook? (Tip: If you want to find time in your day, delete the Facebook mobile app from you phone.) Sleeping longer instead of exercising? Popping open an email as soon as you hear that little "ding?" and responding immediately?

Once you make the commitment to REALLY BIG goals, find yourself consistently taking huge amounts of action and have mastered the self discipline of delayed gratification you will have disarmed the intention trap. And once you have disarmed the intention trap you have inoculated yourself from despair and will achieve heights that once seemed impossibly out of reach.

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Matt Weick is an experienced sales professional who knows enough to know there is still plenty left to learn. Matt started a disk jockey business at 13, accidentally caught a gas station on fire at 16, solicited alumni donations and sold books door-to-door during college before finally settling into technology sales management which continues to be his passion to this day.